ABSTRACT
The German authorities in South-West Africa at first hoped to join forces with rebellious Boers in the Union of South Africa. The majority of Afrikaners, however, remained loyal to the British Empire. The South African parliament voted on 14 September 1914 by ninety-two votes to twelve to enter the war on the side of Britain. The German Colonial League demanded in the whole of West Africa south of the Sahara, Uganda, Kenya, Northern Rhodesia, and Madagascar. There was virtually nothing left for other interested parties between the desert and the Zambesi Kiaochou, however, was to be given to the Japanese. The Turkish nation adapted itself to the loss of its Arab possessions. In Germany there was vociferous complaint about the loss of the colonies – the same colonies which a broad sector of the public had only a few years before the First World War regarded as uneconomical.
